IFE-HISTORY OF TELE AS 



703 



like non-segmented larva resembling the second larva of Platygaster 

 it passes directly into the p\ipa state. 



A fourth form, Teleas (Fig. 654, A-D), is an egg-parasite of Gerris, 

 and in America one species oviposits in the eggs of (Ecanthus. 



The spindle-shaped larva in its first stage roughly resembles a 

 trochosphere of a worm rather than the larva of an insect so high in 

 the scale as a Hymenopter. It is active, but after moulting the 

 second larva is oval, still without segments. Dr. Ayers gives a pro- 

 fusion of details and figures of the 

 first and second stages of our Teleas, 

 the second strongly resembling the 

 Cyclops stage of Ganin. He de- 

 scribes three stages, and though he 

 did not complete the life-history of 



FIG. 651. First larva of Platygaster : m, 

 mouth ; at, rudimentary antenna ; md, mandi- 

 bles ; d, tongue-like appendages. 



FIG. 652. Second larva of Platygaster : oe, 

 oesophagus ; ng, brain ; n, nervous cord ; go, 

 and ff, genital organs ; ms, muscular band. 



the insect, he thinks it changes to an ovoid flattened form which 

 succeeds the Cyclops stage in other Pteromalidae, and that' there 

 are at least four ecdyses. 



It is difficult to account for these strange larval forms, unless we 

 suppose that the embryos, by their rich, abundant food, have under- 

 gone a premature development, the growth of the body-walls being 

 greatly accelerated, the insects so to speak having been, under the 

 stimulus of over-nutrition and their unusual environment, and per- 

 haps also the high temperature of the egg, hurried into vermian 



